The Louvre, Guggenheim and NYU do little for human rights

Some of the poorest people lured to the U.A.E. with the promise of a job are being blatantly exploited in constructing the Louvre, Guggenheim and NYU campus in Abu Dhabi.

The multi-billion dollar cultural hub project underway on Saadiyat Island has Frank Gehry, Norman Foster and Zaha Hadid on their payroll, yet migrant workers are having their wages, of around $240 a month withheld, are being housed in substandard accommodation, their passports confiscated and have been summarily deported for wanting to holding a strike.

Human Rights Watch published its third report on the situation this week. Though their researcher was never allowed access to the site, he spoke to over a hundred former and present employees of the projects. And upon leaving, Interior Ministry officials informed the researcher he was being blacklisted and wouldn’t be allowed to return.

HRW says, “In light of the ongoing abuses of workers on their projects, Agence France-Muséums, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, and New York University should make their continued engagement with their projects on Saadiyat Island dependent on public commitments by the UAE government authorities… to protect workers from abuse, penalise contractors for violations, and compensate workers who suffer abuses.”

When questioned, these institutions claimed to be powerless to enforce change in the U.A.E. But isn’t their prestige and reputation the reason they are in the UAE? The Emirates needs their shine to boost their own global reputation. The political reality is that they could wield this power to affect the lives of some of the poorest in the world, for the better. In the end, what good is culture without humanity?